The startup launched Jharokha.com, an online retail portal dedicated to handicrafts and handlooms of India, about two months back, its chief marketing and business officer Manish Kalra said.

The startup launched Jharokha.com, an online retail portal dedicated to handicrafts and handlooms of India, about two months back, its chief marketing and business officer Manish Kalra said.

BENGALURU: After cutting down its team size to half over the last six months, online ethnic fashion retailer Craftsvilla is now restructuring its business to cut cash burn rate and survive in a market, dominated by Myntra-Jabong combine, followed by Amazon Fashion.

Craftsvilla, which recently launched its third private apparel label, is looking to grow in-house brands to 30% of its business in the next six months by launching them on other marketplaces as well as offline stores, and create differentiated verticals for products catering to separate audiences.

The startup launched Jharokha.com, an online retail portal dedicated to handicrafts and handlooms of India, about two months back, its chief marketing and business officer Manish Kalra said.

“Our acquisition in the food space, Places of Origin, runs independently as a brand as well,“ he said at the launch of the portal's apparel label Anuswara.

While the supply side differs for each of the standalone verticals, they all share the same product and technology teams, said Kalra who joined Craftsvilla last year.

The company, which started its private label offering in November last year, plans to launch its in-house brand Avanya on other online marketplaces and offline stores within two months, Kalra said at the launch of the portal's latest apparel label Anuswara. Manoj Gupta, who founded the company with Monica Gupta in 2011, is now taking care of technology and HR apart from being involved in day to day operations.

“Manoj has been the leader and is still actively involved.... He hasn't taken a backseat,“ said Kalra. Kalra is also a part of the Craftsvilla board along with founders Manoj and Monica Gupta.

To generate additional re venue Craftsvilla, which acquired logistics technology startup Sendd, also plans to open it up to other businesses for a pay-per-use model. The company now has just 100 people on its rolls, down from 260 in 2016. It claims to have reduced cash burn across functions, including mar keting and improved margins to cover the variable costs. It has also put its international expansion plans on backburner, and is inste ad focusing on traffic generated from non-resident Indians living in Southeast Asian countries.

“Almost 10% of our traffic comes from international locations. We realised that we need a different kind of selection for those users and marketing costs are high in those countries. We are now focused on organic demand instead of creating separate platform for these countries,“ said Kalra.

The company, which raised $34 million in 2015 in a round led by Sequoia India and Lightspeed Venture Partners, does not plan to raise any more external capital. According to data provided by business research platform Tofler, Craftsvilla registered year-onyear revenue growth of 113% for 2015-16 while its losses escalated to Rs 117 crore from Rs 5.51 crore.

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